How to Modernize Your Communications with UCaaS

The benefits of IT Modernization have been a regular topic for CIOs in both the private and public sectors. And through the efforts of the American Technology Council, agencies now have a step-by-step timeline to when the modernization needs to be completed.

Now that the barriers to adoption have largely been removed, including financial limitations with the creation of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), agencies can now move from theoretical conversations to how to accomplish the transition.

Benefits of UCaaS For Your Agency

Simplify Management of Your Communications Solution

Cloud technologies have a significant advantage over premises solutions – one of which is removing the need to maintain and operate the premises solution yourself. Physical maintenance and logical administration of a cloud system lies in the hands of your cloud service provider.

Reduce Costs and Free up Resources

The savings realized from reducing the footprint of your premises solution, including everything from labor to reduced HVAC usage, can be reallocated to accelerate your transformation.

Workforce Retention

The new generation of workers were raised in a digitally connected world – and they expect their workplace to be enabled, accordingly. Mobility and flexibility will be key factors in creating an environment that will attract and retain the next generation of workers.

Today’s Modern Workforce Requires Modern Collaboration and Communication

As of 2015, millennials made up 1/3 of the workforce, surpassing Gen-X as the largest generation in the office, and bring a wealth of knowledge to the workforce. With the majority of the current federal workforce reaching retirement and being replaced with these “digital natives,” government agencies need to be prepared. Gone are the days of workers remaining tied to their desk and desk phone, and agencies need to adopt modern communications tools to keep pace with evolving demands.

Messaging

Today’s workforce is used to the convenience of chat based communication. The National Federation of Independent Business lists five ways instant messaging can benefit organizations, including an ability to essentially multitask. Chris Grande from Walnut Hills Advisors, LLC says, “If I am talking to a client and I need something and don’t want to interrupt the call, I can request data or info silently while talking.” Legacy forms of communication would require the caller to be placed on hold while the employee either tried to call or physically walk over to the individual they are trying to reach. Additionally, a chat session can be saved and logged, making it easier to recall the conversation later. Instant messaging can also save costs, particularly if a large part of the agency’s mission involves working with international entities.

Presence

Presence is defined in this Tech Target article as “real-time information about a person’s availability.” Presence can be an extremely valuable tool for agencies, as it shows a visual representation of an employee’s status. If you need to reach another member of the agency, you can see if they are on the phone or have been idle for a while in a single glance, allowing you to make real-time decisions on how to best reach them.

Mobility

Mobility and mobile devices are now ubiquitous, and if you want to compete for top talent, then you need to offer the technology to support the demand. UCaaS is built upon the premise of mobility, with features such as find me/follow me, call forwarding, and mobile apps allowing users’ mobile devices to make calls as though they were in the office. All of this can be accomplished while still maintaining the security of your infrastructure.

Conferencing

With largely dispersed workforces, more agencies and organizations are moving towards virtual meetings in order to reduce travel costs. UCaaS solutions provide conferencing features such as Meet-Me, WebEx integration, audio only, audio and video and many more.

Enable the Modernization of your Agency with UCaaS

Cloud solutions make it easier for agencies to deliver better services – both internally and externally. With the flexibility and scalability of cloud solutions allowing agencies to efficiently manage rapidly changing missions, best-of-breed solutions like collab9’s Secure Unified Communications solution enable agencies to shift resources as funds become available. This, along with the funding of the Technology Modernization Fund, will help agencies turn from maintaining legacy systems to modernize government technology.

Are you ready to make the change? Speak with one of our specialists today and see how collab9’s Best-of-Breed UCaaS solution can aid your agency’s mission.